Henley cracks top 50 with Honda win; gets in Doral

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Russell Henley’s playoff victory at the Honda Classic proved to be good timing, and not just because the Masters is only five weeks away.

By prevailing Sunday at PGA National, the 24-year-old Georgia product moved from No. 110 to No. 46 in the Official World GolfRanking. His standing inside the top 50 secured him a berth in this week’s WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral.

Henley was 50th in the world when he won last year’s Sony Open in his first start as a PGA Tour member, but he had only two top 10s since then to drop outside the top 100. Last year, he tied for 28th in his first start at Doral.

The other notable moves after the Honda involved the three playoff participants. Rory Mcllroy rose from No. 8 to No. 6 after tying for second, while Ryan Palmer jumped from 77th to 59th and Russell Knox vaulted from 206th to 119th.